ENGAGE

Engaging Communities With Local Environments

Engaging the community with the outside world is the third prong of our mission. In doing so we have a responsibility to offer outreach that fits more than one demographic. Which is why next year we will be hosting a new series of free events known as our “Sips with Staff.” One to two times a month, HWLC staff will host a meet and greet with staff and members of the community at one of our nature preserves. We will provide a fire (if appropriate), non-alcoholic beverages, (although people are free to bring their own), and conversations about the preserve and what the public would like to see from our organization. These casual events will work like an open house, but in our preferred office; nature.

Each sip will showcase one of our preserves and things to do and see there during that season. We will host one at Big Lake during the spring ephemeral bloom, and again in the fall for the wonderful changing colors. In April, we invite everyone to participate in the Bob Ross “Happy Little Trees 5K,” at the Luneack Nature Preserve. We want communities to get to know our properties and staff. We will kick off Sips with Staff in the New Year. The first will be held at the Sturgeon River Nature Preserve in January.

We had such blast with Forest School this year! It was a wonderful series for getting kids outside in nature where they belong. In 2023 Forest School will move to Wednesdays instead of Fridays. We will host six Forest School days, two each in June, July, and August. These classes are excellent for families to enjoy whether you are a parent or grandparent. Visit our website to see our up to date calendar of events. We look forward to seeing everyone in the New Year!

Mccoy Family Tree Farm

WHEN WALTER MCCOY BOUGHT LAND IN CRAWFORD COUNTY IN THE 1950S, HE IMMEDIATELY GOT TO WORK PLANTING TREES. WALTER, HIS WIFE KATHRYN, AND THEIR CHILDREN PLANTED THOUSANDS OF TREES ON THEIR PROPERTY, MOSTLY PINES AND SPRUCES, OVER THE COMING DECADES.

As the pines grew, they provided a perfect nursery for the sugar maple, beech, ironwood, and basswood. Carefully planned select harvest further favored these species, and now much of the property is mature northern hardwood forest, like what was present on this landscape prior to widespread European settlement. The McCoy Family Tree Farm is part of the American Tree Farm System, which means they are committed to sustainable forest management not only for timber production, but also for wildlife habitat, water quality, and leaving the land better than they found it.

Located in the aptly named Maple Forest Township, the property is about 100 acres of northern hardwood forests and planted pines. Much like the work HeadWaters Land Conservancy does, forest management is all about the very long term. As the McCoy siblings considered what the future would hold for their family tree farm, they wanted to make sure the forest they have carefully stewarded for nearly 70 years wasn’t lost to development or bad forestry practices. Donating a Conservation Easement to HeadWaters was a way to ensure the property’s forest will remain intact long into the future.

Landowner Janet Himan explained her decision to donate a Conservation Easement.

“Since our parents, Walter T. McCoy Jr. and Kathryn V. McCoy, and we four siblings have owned and been stewards of this property since 1956, we wanted to preserve our parents’ legacy by putting it into a Conservation Easement. In his later years, Dad would always ask us, his four adult children, ‘What are you going to do with this place after we’re gone?’ We are honored to place this beautiful property into a Conservation Easement for all future generations to enjoy, as we have for over 60 years. Dad and Mom would be smiling!”